PARIS: Iga Swiatek kept her bid for a fourth successive French Open title alive as she fought back from a set and a break down to defeat Elena Rybakina on Sunday.
The four-time Roland Garros champion, who has been struggling for her best form and has not reached a final since winning the title last year, was in serious trouble when trailing 2-0 in the second set.
But the 24-year-old dug deep to clinch a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Swiatek is aiming to become the first woman to win four straight Roland Garros crowns since Suzanne Lenglen 102 years ago.
The Pole will next face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who knocked out 2024 losing finalist Jasmine Paolini, in the last eight on Tuesday.
Swiatek is now on a 25-match winning streak at the French Open and boasts a remarkable 39-2 win-loss record in the tournament.
Rybakina had won both of her previous career meetings with Swiatek on clay and the Kazakh dominated the opening set, hammering 12 winners past her bewildered opponent.
Rybakina broke in the first game of the second set as she threatened to run away with the match.
But Swiatek impressively turned the set around with a run of five straight games.
The fifth seed looked to have finally seized total control with a break to lead 4-3 in the deciding set, only to hand it straight back.
Swiatek was one game from defeat when trailing 5-4, but she managed to end Rybakina’s resistance and held her nerve to serve out the match.
Elina Svitolina saved three match points to eliminate last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini and book her place in the quarterfinals.
The 30-year-old 13th seed roared back to upset the world number four 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 in their last-eight tie.
The Ukrainian has never progressed further than the last eight in Roland Garros, falling at that stage four times since her Paris debut 12 years ago.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka was briefly troubled in the first set before battling past 16th-seed Amanda Anisimova 7-5, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals and improve her losing record against the American.
The Belarusian three-time Grand Slam champion, who now has more match straight set wins this year (33) than any other player has tour wins, will take on China’s seventh-seed Zheng Qinwen in the quarterfinals.
Chinese eighth seed Zheng Qinwen secured a place in the French Open quarter-finals with a hard-fought three-set victory over Russian Liudmila Samsonova.
The reigning Olympic champion extended her winning streak at Roland Garros to 10 matches, winning 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 6-3 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Second seed Carlos Alcaraz reached the quarterfinals as he beat Ben Shelton 7-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
World number 12 Tommy Paul blitzed Australian Alexei Popyrin 6-3 6-3 6-3 to become the first American male player to reach the French Open quarterfinals in 22 years.
Paul matched Andre Agassi’s run from 2003 after Americans on Saturday equalled a 40-year-old record with five women and three men in round four of the clay court Grand Slam.
Paul also became the only active American player to reach the last eight on all three surfaces after his 2023 Australian Open semifinal and 2024 Wimbledon quarterfinal runs. Agencies
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